The Global/Local Tension in the History of Anthropology
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24 Labor As Seen by Social Anthropology José Sergio Leite
24 Labor As Seen By Social Anthropology José Sergio Leite Lopes 1 1. Introduction: the economic sphere and labor in social anthropology Anthropologists have traditionally studied labor in their monographs about indigenous groups, ethnic minorities, the peasantry, fishers and artisans. In these studies of labor, as in the economic sphere in general, it appears as enmeshed in the totality of the social life of these “traditional”, “pre-capitalist” groups. Generally such anthropological studies focus on the centrality of gift giving and reciprocity, which negate or obscure economic interests for the benefit of the logic of honor or of symbolic capital. They regard the gift as a total social fact where the market principal is subordinated to that of reciprocity and redistribution. Labor in these studies is not the central theme of interest, but appears in a form subordinated to other aspects with which it is interrelated. Between the 1950s and 1970s, anthropologists engaged with the question of the critical application or appropriation of concepts from diverse currents of so-called economic theory. Such concepts were constructed to explain the capitalist economy, but anthropologists embraced these economic principles in general to understand all societies. A debate arose between “substantivists”, who praised the historicity of concepts and the necessity of new instruments for the economic analysis of non-capitalist societies and the “formalists” who gave a wider reach to existing economic theories to apply to their ethnographies. The substantivists were located in some American universities and drew heavily on the work of and disciples of the Hungarian economic historian Karl Polanyi; later they would have an important repercussion in the whole anthropological field. -
Maurice Godelier and the Study of Ideology
MAURICE GODELIER AND THE STUDY OF' IDEOLOGY In recent years we have seen a gradual coming together of two trends in social anthropology which were earlier often thought of as opposite poles, namely the structuralist and the marxist.marxist 0 1'hisThis development has been most marked within French anthropology. Where\vhere Levi-Strauss in 1962 was conte~tconte:p.t to leave to other disciplines the study of inffastructures proper (1966: 131) he now admits a determining role (though not the spie determining role) to the relationship between man and his techno-economic environment (1974). And, where marxist·anthropologistamarxist anthropologists never thought of questioning the axiom that it is the economic infrastructure which 'in the last analysis' determines the form and evolution of social formations, and frustrated the rest of us by always beginning with that 'last analysis' and never getting around to any of the previous ones, today ideology appeq,rsappe~rs among the mostmost.frequent frequent topics for marxist analysis. Among those, explicitly concerned with the combination of structuralist and marxist approaches is. MauriceMa.urice Godelier.InGodelier •.. In this paper I wish to take up some points relating to Godelier's work on religion, ideology and the like. Religion We·We may well take as a point of departure a brief paper by Godelier entitled 'Toward a Marxist Anthropology of Religion', in which he gives 'an example of how Marxist anthropologists can .. proceed to analyze religion in the pre-capitalist societies which are their -
Gifts and Commodities (Second Edition)
GIFTS AND COMMODITIES Hau BOOKS Executive Editor Giovanni da Col Managing Editor Sean M. Dowdy Editorial Board Anne-Christine Taylor Carlos Fausto Danilyn Rutherford Ilana Gershon Jason Throop Joel Robbins Jonathan Parry Michael Lempert Stephan Palmié www.haubooks.com GIFTS AND COMMODITIES (SECOND EditIon) C. A. Gregory Foreword by Marilyn Strathern New Preface by the Author Hau Books Chicago © 2015 by C. A. Gregory and Hau Books. First Edition © 1982 Academic Press, London. All rights reserved. Cover and layout design: Sheehan Moore Typesetting: Prepress Plus (www.prepressplus.in) ISBN: 978-0-9905050-1-3 LCCN: 2014953483 Hau Books Chicago Distribution Center 11030 S. Langley Chicago, IL 60628 www.haubooks.com Hau Books is marketed and distributed by The University of Chicago Press. www.press.uchicago.edu Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. For Judy, Polly, and Melanie. Contents Foreword by Marilyn Strathern xi Preface to the first edition xv Preface to the second edition xix Acknowledgments liii Introduction lv PART ONE: CONCEPTS I. THE COmpETING THEOriES 3 Political economy 3 The theory of commodities 3 The theory of gifts 9 Economics 19 The theory of modern goods 19 The theory of traditional goods 22 II. A framEWORK OF ANALYSIS 25 The general relation of production to consumption, distribution, and exchange 26 Marx and Lévi-Strauss on reproduction 26 A simple illustrative example 30 The definition of particular economies 32 viii GIFTS AND COMMODITIES III.FTS GI AND COMMODITIES: CIRCULATION 39 The direct exchange of things 40 The social status of transactors 40 The social status of objects 41 The spatial aspect of exchange 44 The temporal dimension of exchange 46 Value and rank 46 The motivation of transactors 50 The circulation of things 55 Velocity of circulation 55 Roads of gift-debt 57 Production and destruction 59 The circulation of people 62 Work-commodities 62 Work-gifts 62 Women-gifts 63 Classificatory kinship terms and prices 68 Circulation and distribution 69 IV. -
Paper Download (202184 Bytes)
EASA Biennial Conference Experiencing Diversity and Mutuality Ljubljana, Slovenia 26-30 August 2008 Ships passing in the night? Interdisciplinarity, East-West relations and commoditization of knowledge in anthropology of post-socialism Kacper Pobłocki Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology Central European University, Budapest, Hungary Abstract: Debates on 'native anthropology', 'anthropology with an accent' and so forth have usually focused on colonialism as the main culprit of asymmetric relations between anthropological knowledges. By bringing the recent dispute between Western and 'native' anthropologist of post-socialism into the 'world anthropologies' debate, I seek to highlight those aspects of current epistemic inequalities that are not post-colonial in nature, but result from global commoditization of knowledge. I ponder why Western anthropologists who started visiting Eastern Europe from the 1970s, concluded that 'native' academic knowledge is inferior to their own output. This was not due to a prejudice brought from afar, I argue, but rather was a result of their field experiences. I discuss how three types of native 'captive minds' (communist, nationalist, and neo-liberal) emerged, and how encountering (or learning about) them made Western anthropologist uninterested in (and distrustful of) local epistemic production. I focus on the putative nationalist 'captive mind', and argue that the straw man of East European 'positivist' science (as opposed to the superior 'theory-oriented' Western anthropology) emerged due to recent changes in the political economy of the academia. I show how the 'theoretical turn' was experienced differently in Western and Polish academia, and how these changes, explained by the different regimes of value, show that there has been an increase only in 'ritual' exchange between parochial and metropolitan anthropology rather than meaningful communication. -
Introduction Laurent Dousset and Serge Tcherkézoff
IntroductIon Laurent Dousset and Serge Tcherkézoff ‘From initiation rituals in Papua new Guinea to the twin towers’: this is how Maurice Godelier (2008b) summarizes the anthropological project and its remit, the scope of anthropology. Hegel’s declaration that ‘nothing that is human is foreign to me’ is both apt and applied in practice, simultaneously tracing the purpose of a scientific programme and the curves of a personal trajectory. More than a simple assertion that the human being is a social animal, Maurice Godelier’s work is guided by the precept that the human being has to actively produce society in order to live. It is a condition of existence. the intellectual path of a man who has taught several generations of anthropologists evinces both the broad ambitions of anthropology as a science of universal significance and a view of social reality as a tangible and, in principle, an intelligible set of facts. the practice of the social sciences reveals a constant dialectic between ethnography and theory, the particular and the general, the local and the global, the diversity of facts and their unification in anthropological analysis.t he relentless intellectual movement between the acknowledgement of the particularistic nature of the local and the general scientific project it advances is a constant feature of Maurice Godelier’s corpus. Such a project is feasible only if knowledge is progressively accumulated, if the theoretical apparatus is part of a developing paradigmatic choice, if schools of thought and their epistemological frameworks are non-dogmatic. Students of Maurice Godelier have heard him say, on many occasions, that one needs to be capable of using the ideas and concepts that generate understanding, irrespective of any loyalty towards a particular intellectual guide. -
SEM Awards Honorary Memberships for 2020
Volume 55, Number 1 Winter 2021 SEM Awards Honorary Memberships for 2020 Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje Edwin Seroussi Birgitta J. Johnson, University of South Carolina Mark Kligman, UCLA If I could quickly snatch two words to describe the career I first met Edwin Seroussi in New York in the early 1990s, and influence of UCLA Professor Emeritus Jacqueline when I was a graduate student and he was a young junior Cogdell DjeDje, I would borrow from the Los Angeles professor. I had many questions for him, seeking guid- heavy metal scene and deem her the QUIET RIOT. Many ance on studying the liturgical music of Middle Eastern who know her would describe her as soft spoken with a Jews. He greeted me warmly and patiently explained the very calm and focused demeanor. Always a kind face, and challenges and possible directions for research. From that even she has at times described herself as shy. But along day and onwards Edwin has been a guiding force to me with that almost regal steadiness and introspective aura for Jewish music scholarship. there is a consummate professional and a researcher, teacher, mentor, administrator, advocate, and colleague Edwin Seroussi was born in Uruguay and immigrated to who is here to shake things up. Beneath what sometimes Israel in 1971. After studying at Hebrew University he appears as an unassuming manner is a scholar of excel- served in the Israel Defense Forces and earned the rank lence, distinction, tenacity, candor, and respect who gently of Major. After earning a Masters at Hebrew University, he pushes her students, colleagues, and community to dig went to UCLA for his doctorate. -
A General Theory of Economic Flow, Social Exchange, and Hegemonic Relationship
W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1992 A General Theory of Economic Flow, Social Exchange, and Hegemonic Relationship Donn Robert Grenda College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Economic Theory Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Grenda, Donn Robert, "A General Theory of Economic Flow, Social Exchange, and Hegemonic Relationship" (1992). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539625722. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-kwnn-9j14 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A General Theory of Economic Flow, Social Exchange, and Hegemonic Relationships A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Anthropology The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Donn R. Grenda 1992 This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Author Approved, April 1992 f Norman Barka Theodore Reinhart ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS i v LIST OF TABLES..................... .................... v LIST OF FIGURES......................................... vi ABSTRACT............... vii INTRODUCTION............................................ 2 CHAPTER I. AN EXAMINATION OF THE FIELD AND ITS FOUNDERS............................................ 7 CHAPTER II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GENERALTHEORY.... 52 CHAPTER III. A GENERAL THEORY OF ECONOMIC FLOW, SOCIAL EXCHANGE, AND HEGEMONIC RELATIONSHIPS...... -
Human Origins
HUMAN ORIGINS Methodology and History in Anthropology Series Editors: David Parkin, Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford David Gellner, Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford Volume 1 Volume 17 Marcel Mauss: A Centenary Tribute Learning Religion: Anthropological Approaches Edited by Wendy James and N.J. Allen Edited by David Berliner and Ramon Sarró Volume 2 Volume 18 Franz Baerman Steiner: Selected Writings Ways of Knowing: New Approaches in the Anthropology of Volume I: Taboo, Truth and Religion. Knowledge and Learning Franz B. Steiner Edited by Mark Harris Edited by Jeremy Adler and Richard Fardon Volume 19 Volume 3 Difficult Folk? A Political History of Social Anthropology Franz Baerman Steiner. Selected Writings By David Mills Volume II: Orientpolitik, Value, and Civilisation. Volume 20 Franz B. Steiner Human Nature as Capacity: Transcending Discourse and Edited by Jeremy Adler and Richard Fardon Classification Volume 4 Edited by Nigel Rapport The Problem of Context Volume 21 Edited by Roy Dilley The Life of Property: House, Family and Inheritance in Volume 5 Béarn, South-West France Religion in English Everyday Life By Timothy Jenkins By Timothy Jenkins Volume 22 Volume 6 Out of the Study and Into the Field: Ethnographic Theory Hunting the Gatherers: Ethnographic Collectors, Agents and Practice in French Anthropology and Agency in Melanesia, 1870s–1930s Edited by Robert Parkin and Anna de Sales Edited by Michael O’Hanlon and Robert L. Welsh Volume 23 Volume 7 The Scope of Anthropology: Maurice Godelier’s Work in Anthropologists in a Wider World: Essays on Field Context Research Edited by Laurent Dousset and Serge Tcherkézoff Edited by Paul Dresch, Wendy James, and David Parkin Volume 24 Volume 8 Anyone: The Cosmopolitan Subject of Anthropology Categories and Classifications: Maussian Reflections on By Nigel Rapport the Social Volume 25 By N.J. -
2012-AAA-Annual-Report.Pdf
Borders & Crossings New Ways to Generate Conversations & Experiences 2012 ANNUAL REPORT EXECUTIVE BOARD AND COMMITTEES 2012 AAA Linguistic Seat Section Assembly Committee on the Executive Board Niko Besnier EB Seat #1 Future of Print (2011–14) Gabriela Vargas– and Electronic President Publishing University of Cetina Leith Mullings (2010–12) Deborah Nichols (2011–13) Amsterdam Universidad The Graduate Center Committee on Minority Seat Autonoma de Yucatan of the City University Gender Equity in Ana L Aparicio Anthropology of New York Section Assembly (2010–13) Jennifer R Weis EB Seat #2 Northwestern President–Elect/Vice Ida Susser University Committee for President (2010–13) Monica Heller Human Rights Practicing/ Hunter College, (2011–13) Ilana Feldman Professional Seat City University of Jessica Winegar University of Toronto, Alisse Waterston New York Ontario Institute for (2010–13) Committee on Labor Studies in Education John Jay College of Treasurer–Ex Officio Relations Criminal Justice, Edward Liebow Michael Chibnik Secretary City University of (2008–12) Debra L Martin New York Battelle Committee on (2009–12) Minority Issues in University of Nevada, Student Seat Anthropology Las Vegas Jason E Miller AAA Committees Simon Craddock Lee (2009–12) and Chairs Section Assembly University of South Committee on Convenor Annual Meeting Practicing, Applied Florida Program Chair Vilma Santiago– and Public Interest Carolyn Rouse Anthropology Irizarry Undesignated #1 (2011–13) Keri Brondo Hugh Gusterson Anthropological Cornell University (2009–12) -
Kinship and Commoditization Historical Transformations
L’Homme Revue française d’anthropologie 154-155 | avril-septembre 2000 Question de parenté Kinship and Commoditization Historical Transformations Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/lhomme/38 DOI: 10.4000/lhomme.38 ISSN: 1953-8103 Publisher Éditions de l’EHESS Printed version Date of publication: 1 January 2000 Number of pages: 373-390 ISBN: 2-7132-1333-9 ISSN: 0439-4216 Electronic reference Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart, « Kinship and Commoditization », L’Homme [Online], 154-155 | avril-septembre 2000, Online since 18 May 2007, connection on 03 May 2019. URL : http:// journals.openedition.org/lhomme/38 ; DOI : 10.4000/lhomme.38 © École des hautes études en sciences sociales Kinship and Commoditization Historical Transformations Andrew Strathern & Pamela J. Stewart KINSHIP relations are often considered by anthropologists, as well as by those whom they study, to be at the heart of community processes, involving solidarity, reciprocity, reproduction, and alliance. This « kinship model » of small-scale soci- eties throughout Melanesia has implicitly informed recent formulations regarding ideas of personhood in this part of the world, in which social and relational aspects of the person have been strongly foregrounded in the literature. At the same time, the study of kinship systems, seen as based on structured forms of terminologies, has tended to be placed into the background, whereas it was made central in an earlier phase of theorizing, even if from diverse points of view (e.g. « extensionist » vs « category word » theorists, pro- and anti-genealogy theorists, descent vs alliance theory). In this paper we aim to make a contribution to the study of kinship rela- tions and theories of personhood, but principally by looking at aspects of histori- cal change in systemic terms. -
Annotations 1963-2005
The Anthropological Caribbeana: Annotations 1963-2005 Lambros Comitas CIFAS Author Title Description Annotation Subject Headings 1977. Les Protestants de la Guadeloupe et la Les Protestants de la Guadeloupe et Author deals with origin of Protestants in Guadeloupe, their social situation, problem of property, and communauté réformée de Capesterre sous Abénon, Lucien la communauté réformée de maintenance of the religion into 18th century. Rather than a history of Protestantism in Guadeloupe, this is an GUADELOUPE. L'Ancien Régime. Bulletin de la Société Capesterre sous L'Ancien Régime. essay on its importance in the religiou d'Histoire de la Guadeloupe 32 (2):25-62. 1993. Caught in the Shift: The Impact of Industrialization on Female-Headed Caught in the Shift: The Impact of Households in Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles. Industrialization on Female-Headed Changes in the social position of women (specifically as reflected in marriage rates and percentages of Abraham, Eva In Where Did All the Men Go? Female- CURAÇAO. Households in Curaçao, Netherlands children born to unmarried mothers) are linked to major changes in the economy of Curaçao. Headed/Female-Supported Households in Antilles Cross-Cultural Perspective. Joan P. Mencher and Anne Okongwu 1976. The West Indian Tea Meeting: An With specific reference to "tea meetings" on Nevis and St. Vincent, author provides a thorough review of the The West Indian Tea Meeting: An Essay in Civilization. In Old Roots in New NEVIS. ST. VINCENT. Abrahams, Roger history and the development of this institution in the British Caribbean. Introduced by Methodist missionaries Essay in Civilization. Lands. Ann M. Pescatello, ed. Pp. 173-208. -
Frameworks of Analysis
PART I Frameworks of Analysis INTRODUCTION Tony Bennett then examine the forms of cultural analysis that have been associated It is clear from our discussion in the general with the development of psychological and introduction that it is impossible to tie the sociological thought. Peter Burke’s discussion term ‘culture’ to a single concept or to a of cultural history provides a bridge into simple history of usage. It is better understood the next group of chapters focused mainly as referencing a network of loosely related on text-based disciplines. James English’s concepts that has been shaped by the relations account of the role that the analysis of form between the different histories and fields of has played in the development of literary usage with which the term has came to be studies is followed here by Tia DeNora’s entangled. A significant factor here has been consideration of music as both text and the different meanings deriving from the ways performance. Mieke Bal then examines the in which the concept has been used and relations between art history and the more interpreted in the social science disciplines recent development of visual culture studies. one the one hand and in the humanities The next two chapters – Tom Gunning’s on the other. These different disciplinary discussion of film studies and Toby Miller’s articulations of the concept are the focus account of broadcasting – are concerned with of the contributions composing this first the forms of cultural analysis that have been part of the book, which also assesses how developed in relation to the two main media the ‘cultural turn’ has affected developments systems of the twentieth century.